Religious intolerance & oppression in Russia

Oppression of Jehovah's
Witnesses, Pentecostals & Jesuits.

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Overview:

Russia's "On
Freedom of Conscious and On Religious Associations" law is being used to oppress
various faith groups in the country: The government uses a provision of the law
that allows the courts to terminate any organization that incites hatred or
intolerant behavior. A disbanded group would no longer have the right to
publicly express their beliefs, hold religious services, rent property, or
distribute information.

Defense lawyers cited the Russian Constitution and the European
Convention on Human Rights, both of which guarantee religious freedom.

The trial
opened in 1998-SEP, but was delayed until 1999-FEB-9 because the prosecutors had not
completed their preparation. The prosecutor said that Russian minds were not prepared for
Jehovah's Witness literature. Spokesperson Judah Schroeder commented: "Who is to
decide what Russian minds are allowed to read?" The court ruled in their favor
on 1999-MAY-6. The group now have official status. If they had lost, the Witnesses had planned to
appeal their case to the European Court.

2004: After a six-year trial, the government was successful in
banning activities by the Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow. This was the first
successful prosecution under the 1997 law. More details.

2009:
In early 2009, government oppression of the Jehovah's Witnesses was ramped up
once more. Forum
18 reported:

"In the space of just three weeks, Jehovah's Witness communities across
Russia have undergone 500 state check-ups. 'That's a conservative estimate
-- we're definitely talking the whole country,' Yaroslav Sivulsky remarked
to Forum 18 News Service from the Jehovah's Witnesses' St Petersburg
headquarters on 10 March. 'Our telephones here are red hot from people
calling to report incidents and ask why it's happening'."

"The nationwide sweep, ordered by First Assistant General Public Prosecutor
Aleksandr Bastrykin, is linked to an investigation into the Jehovah's
Witnesses' St Petersburg headquarters, the Moscow Regional Public
Prosecutor's Office explains in its order for check-ups sent to district
subdivisions on 13 February."

"Having failed to find grounds for prosecution since the St Petersburg
investigation began in 2004, the authorities are now 'trawling' for
information to shut down the Jehovah's Witnesses' Russian headquarters and
over 400 dependent organisations, Sivulsky believes: 'Nothing else makes
sense'."

"Jehovah's Witnesses' 'missionary activity, social isolation, refusal to
perform military service, accept blood transfusions and other religiously
motivated restrictions required of members of this organisation provoke a
negative attitude towards its activity from the population and traditional
Russian confessions,' the Moscow Regional Public Prosecutor's Office order
notes. ..."

"On 25 February North Ossetia Public Prosecutor's Office filed suit with
the local Supreme Court for the liquidation of the republic's four
Jehovah's Witness organisations in Alagir, Beslan, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz."

"As well as distribution of allegedly extremist religious literature, the
suit cites a number of grounds for the organisations' closure, including
Jehovah's Witnesses' allegedly anti-constitutional refusal of blood
transfusions and religious activity outside the geographical location where
they are registered. It also notes that four Vladikavkaz Jehovah's
Witnesses have refused to perform alternative military service - in one
case resulting in a Soviet District Court sentence of 180 hours' forced
labour - and that the husband of a member of the Beslan organisation has
filed for divorce because she is a Jehovah's Witness." 1

"Even though 34 Jehovah's Witness publications described as extremist have
not yet been added to the Federal List of Extremist Materials,
public prosecutors in disparate Russian regions have already begun issuing
extremism warnings to Jehovah's Witness communities, Forum 18 News Service
has learnt. In what is believed to be the first such instance in post-Soviet
Russia of extended detention in connection with preaching, two Jehovah's
Witnesses informally accused of distributing extremist literature in Bryansk
Region were released on appeal yesterday evening (14 January), six days into
a ten-day sentence for 'petty hooliganism'. Pointing to the general shutdown
during Russia's lengthy recent holiday period, Grigory Martynov of the
Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 on 13 January that it is too early for a
comprehensive assessment of the situation, however: 'We are waiting to see
what the New Year will bring'."

"The 34 Jehovah's Witness titles - published in Germany and the USA and
widely distributed internationally - were described as extremist in a
decision of Russia's Supreme Court on 8 December. Under the Extremism Law,
mass distribution, preparation or storage with the aim of mass distribution
of the titles could now result in a four-year prison term. The Supreme Court
also upheld, as part of the ruling, the liquidation of the Taganrog
Jehovah's Witness congregation as extremist. Shortly after the decision, a
Court secretary insisted to Forum 18 that Jehovah's Witnesses expound
extremist views in Russia. Asked if they had killed anyone, for example, she
replied: 'To a certain extent, yes'." 4

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Oppression of a Pentecostal Church:

1999: Officials in the city of Magadan in
the far east of Russia are attempting to disband the Word of Life Church. Pastor
Nickolay Voskoboynikov commented "This persecution is no different from those
which were done under the communist regime." The city's first move was to
have the church declared illegal under the 1997 law. This failed when it was shown that
the church was a member of the Pentecostal Union, a government approved body. The police
then resorted to terrorist tactics by raiding the church and the homes of its
leaders. The pastor, assistant pastor and bookkeeper were rounded up in the middle of the
night and taken in for questioning. Local media outlets appear to have been influenced by
the anti-cult movement. They are accusing the church of hypnotizing believers and
generating mental illness. Some members have received threats from their employers. 2

Oppression of the Jesuits:

1999: Russia has refused to register the Society of Jesus,
"one of the Catholic Church's most prestigious orders of priests."
Ecumenical News International reported on 1999-MAY-3 that the Jesuits appealed the
decision, and are partly basing their appeal on a letter written in 1800 CE by Tsar Paul
1. 3